E3 2004: Dragon Age

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BioWare's new RPG is familiar, but different.

By Tal Blevins

E3 2004 is a show of sequels. Half-Life 2, DOOM 3, Sims 2, Knights of the Old Republic II. Sure, they all look great, but we still like being a little surprised, and seeing something new at the big show. Thankfully, BioWare delivered today with an RPG that, although familiar, is something completely new at the same time.

Although BioWare is probably best known for their Dungeons and Dragon's based Baldur's Gate series, Dragon Age isn't another foray into the D&D universe. As Joint-CEO Ray Muzyka told us, "Dragon Age is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate." However, Dragon Age has nothing to do directly with Baldur's Gate.

Although set against a traditional fantasy backdrop, BioWare is hoping to do something a little different with Dragon Age, and the world won't be inhabited by Dwarves, Elves and Halflings -- although it will be filled with Dwarf-like, Elf-like and Halfling-like races. While this may sound like a cop-out, Ray explained that BioWare wanted to try something a little different, but still wanted it to be familiar to fantasy RPG players. Although nothing is finalized at this point, Dragon Age will feature archetypal races and classes (you know, fighters, clerics, mages and the like), and BioWare is looking to the community to decide exactly which classes and races they want to see in the game. We did see one completely new race that will be in the game, though. Although they don't have a name as of yet, or at least BioWare wasn't saying what the name was, the characters sport horns on their heads and look rather lizard (or perhaps dragon) like.

BioWare is known for their intensive research when building universes, and as with all their RPGs, BioWare strives to create an extremely deep and rich lore to go with their worlds. Dragon Age will be no exception, and they have already developed a backstory and culture for the playable races as well as the non-playable races in the game. BioWare even has a few linguistics PhD students developing entirely new languages for Dragon Age. When asked about the significance of the title, BioWare told us that, like the Stone Age and Iron Age, they wanted to indicate that the game takes place in a time where dragons are prevalent.

Like most RPGs, in the beginning you'll create a party of characters and tailor them to your desire. You'll also be able to hire henchmen during the game, and BioWare promises you'll run into some characters with a lot of personality, like Minsc from Baldur's Gate.